Flight management systems (FMSs) provide enhanced situational awareness and reduce the navigation related workload required of pilots and flight crews. Specifically, FMSs provide flight planning and navigation capabilities such as path guidance, weather and traffic alerts, and flight performance information. Typically, a FMS acquires formatting navigation data and forwards the data to a display system located in the cockpit during flight. FMS navigation data may include waypoints, headings between waypoints, distances, and airports. Navigation data is displayed in real-time during flight to chart a course from an origination point to a destination point. Additionally, FMSs may be utilized for time or fuel planning, predictions based on an aircraft's flight manual data, airdrop, and search and rescue patterns.
Current flight management systems utilized for optimizing path guidance as well as fuel and other performance costs for individual aircraft are typically installed in each aircraft, and therefore provide optimization only for the aircraft in which the system is installed. Consequently, an aircraft's performance may only be optimized if a flight management system has been installed. Additionally, optimization may not be achieved for multiple aircraft simultaneously, as desired by a fleet operator. This may result in decreased efficiency when determining landing priorities, which may lead to flight delays, missed connections and increased fuel costs. Additionally, these individual systems may be expensive for aircraft operators.
Another disadvantage of current flight management systems is the amount of heads-down time for a pilot or crewmember who must constantly monitor the information received from the flight management system. Heads-down time occurs when the pilot or crewmember is neither looking at the primary flight displays, nor out the wind screen, but instead is focused upon a task in an oblique direction, such as when operating a typical FMS control display unit (CDU). Due to the complex nature of current flight management systems, heads-down time may be significant. The problem of heads-down time may be further compounded by inherent time limitations for decision-making. For example, when making a final approach, a pilot may only have a few miles of obstacle clearance area. As a result, a pilot must react immediately and correctly on the first attempt. To minimize pilot distraction and reduce pilot heads-down time, aircraft operators may employ extra crewmembers, resulting in increased costs and reduced passenger or cargo carrying capabilities.
Consequently, it would be advantageous if a system and method existed that provided flight management to one or more aircraft via a secure, reliable communication link between a flight management system located outside the aircraft and a flight management system located onboard the aircraft. It would be similarly advantageous to provide optimized flight management of multiple aircraft located within a specified area or within a specified fleet via a single remote flight management system.